Marvel fan days of my youth

So I was reading a few things on Bloglines today, and came across a link in Dick Hates Your Blog to this piece on politics in Marvel comics in the 8os, something I know pretty much nothing about. (I'm not writing about it today, either.)

Now, I had heard the name Vince Colletta before, on the splash page of god-only-knows-how-many comics I read as a kid and teenager, often with a bouncy adjective attached (ala "Jumpin' Jack Kirby" and "Stompin' Stan Lee").

That's another thing that made Marvel stand out to me when I was a kid--the personality. I don't remember ever noticing any credits on DC books I read, although I know they were there. But they weren't as dynamic as the ones on my Marvel books. And even after the nicknames disappeared from the credits, they were still all over the Marvel Bullpen Bulletin,* a page promoting upcoming projects, discussing editorial and creative-team changes in the company--as a twelve-year-old I certainly didn't read this closely but I did usually glance at it. I remember reading Stan's Soapbox, noting the way creators and their projects were referred to so effusively and so personally.

It all seemed so joyful, as if these people all went to work and had fun! And why not?--to a twelve-year-old, a job consisting of telling stories and drawing pictures would have been the ultimate good time. These must be the happiest people on the planet!

Yeah, I'm a grownup now. And it's been thirty years or thereabouts since I enjoyed that sort of blindness to the fact that any job is, well, a job. And I know that all the things I'm talking about--Stan's Soapbox, the goofy credits, etc.--were, really, business, promotion of an image. But I still have fond memories of being a young girl, looking forward to each month's new Fantastic Four, and feeling like the folks who made it had at least as much fun putting the book together as I did reading it.

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* Of course I had to go out to the porch and grab an old Silver Age book out of the longbox. The one I took is from 1974, and one of the announcements on the Bullpen Bulletin Page is about the Invaders title; it'll give you an idea of the tone taken in these things:

ITEM: Let's roll out the red carpet for Free-wheelin' FRANK ROBBINS, Marvel's newest editor and bon vivant! As many of you know, Frank's the artist and writer of the newspaper comic strip "Johnny Hazard," and is considered by his peers to be one of the finest craftsmen in the business. Now, after cutting his incisors on a Morbius tale or two in the pages of ADVENTURES INTO FEAR, Frank has stepped in to give our pal SAL BUSCEMA a well-earned rest from the pages of CAPTAIN AMERICA--and to team up with Roy the Boy [Thomas] on a brand new 50 cent title due to debut early in '75. Its title? THE INVADERS! (Who's going to be in this newest, most exciting super-group? We'll leave you guessing for a month or so, pilgrim. Suffice it to say that we think the lineup of this liltin' legion is going to catch nearly everybody off guard, and that Free-wheelin' Frank will definitely have his hands full!)

Yeah, back in the day, long before the internet and the pages and pages of creator interviews and the 6 pages of previews of upcoming titles, this is what we had to whet our appetite for new books. Doesn't seem like much compared to, say, Newsarama, does it? :)